Spring Break at OC: A Time to Serve

Wednesday, Mar 21, 2012

Approximately 10 percent of Oklahoma Christian University’s 2,200 students are spending their spring break serving others on mission trips. Students are lending a hand in Mexico, Honduras and multiple cities in the United States.

Oklahoma Christian’s student service organization, Outreach, is organizing projects with a college campus ministry in San Antonio, Texas and inner city ministries in Little Rock, Ark., and Memphis, Tenn. Outreach is also working in Oklahoma City and Luther, Okla., with two local churches. A large group of students from the Memorial Road church of Christ are working with Habitat for Humanity in San Antonio.

Dudley Chancey, associate professor of youth ministry, is leading a trip to Honduras, as he does every spring and summer. Oklahoma Christian alumni are missionaries there, helping lead a children’s home and a homeless ministry while helping grow the church in the city of Mateo.

Two student groups are serving in Mexico. Students from the Mayfair church of Christ in Oklahoma City are working with an orphanage in Anauac, Mexico. Another large group of students from the Edmond church of Christ is working in Aquiles, Mexico helping build houses and leading vacation Bible school.

According to Ben Langford, director of Oklahoma Christian’s Center for Global Missions, spring break mission trips are one way the university helps students envision their vocations as mission.

“Every student at OC can find ways to use their talents to serve others, and we love helping connect them to those opportunities during spring break,” said Langford, a former missionary to Uganda. “We realize that not everyone can become full-time missionaries. But all of us can make a difference in the world, whether it’s in our backyards or on another continent. It is inspiring and exciting to see the heart for the world that our students have.”